Rapper Rick Ross Gets Placed On Life Support Machine

Rick Ross is hooked up to a life support machine following a health scare that left him hospitalized, TMZ reports.

A source told the website that the machine had taken over his heart and lung functions. Doctors are reportedly using an ECMO — extracorporeal membrane oxygenation — machine on Ross, which oxygenates the blood outside the body and then returns it to the body.

TMZ claims that Ross is being treated in the cardiac unit, possibly indicating that he suffered a heart attack. The website first reported that Ross was being treated for pneumonia at a local hospital, although an unidentified family member denied that Ross was hospitalized.

The Davie Police Department confirmed to Us Weekly that emergency officials were called to Ross’ house in Davie, Florida, on Thursday, March 1, around 3:30 a.m. when the rapper was found unresponsive and breathing heavily. The person who called 911 attempted to wake Ross and saw that he was “slobbing out the mouth,” according to police.

The 42-year-old Grammy nominee got “combative” with medical professionals, the dispatch record revealed. The unidentified 911 caller told dispatchers Ross was “nodding his head” and “boo-bood on himself,” although the meaning of that phrase is unknown.

This is not Ross’ first health scare. The “Hustlin’” rapper has a history of seizures. In 2011, he was hospitalized in Birmingham, Alabama, after having two seizures in a six-hour period. Ross later attributed them to lack of sleep. He also told Men’s Health in 2016 that he’d lost 75 pounds after suffering the seizures.